A Night When Time Stood Still, The Night a Fan Was Born!

On a cold, blistery day in December, a child sits inside his house. The aroma of potatoes fills the house as they boil in a pot in the kitchen. The boy sits quietly on the couch as he watches his favorite wrestler talking on TV.

The wrestler is yelling and telling everyone how he will win the title tomorrow at the big show. The boy smiles with excitement and anticipation as he looks at the tickets that his dad bought two months ago.

He hears the wind blow and feels the cold air as the door opens, running to it with excitement. The boy hugs his dad with all his might and smiles as he looks up at to see his father smiling back at him.

As they sit around the table, the boy talks with excitement about the show tomorrow. He then asks his did whom he thinks will win the big match. His father gets up to put his plate in the sink and then ruffles his son’s hair and tells him "we will see, we will see" as he chuckles.

The boy eats his dinner then rushes to the bathroom to get ready for bed. He is excited about his big trip to New York to see his first wrestling show. He can hardly keep his eyes closed as he imagines the inside of the arena.

The next day seems to pass in a foggy haze for the boy. Try as he might, he can't seem to focus on anything but the special night ahead with his dad. He knew his dad would be home soon and he felt like the excitement was just going to seep through his body.

He was dressed ready and ready to go as his dad walked through the door. He grabs his dad’s arms and try’s to drag him to the car. "Hold on there, kiddo! Let me relax a little first," his father tells him.

After supper, his dad finally tells him to get ready to go. He runs to his bedroom to get changed, as he looks through his closet and pulls out a T-shirt with his favorite wrestler on it.

He stares at the shirt in awe and thinks to himself, "what if he sees me wearing his shirt?" He then puts the shirt on proudly and heads to the kitchen. As they are leaving his gives his mother a kiss and then suddenly realizes he forgot something.

Wait a second, he yells out loud. He runs to his room and gets his poster he spent an hour working on. He makes his way to the car and thinks to himself; I am now ready to go!

The car ride went by surprisingly fast as he and his dad talked about great wrestlers from the past. His dad tells him about his first wrestling show and how it was so exciting. They were soon in New York and the boy could sense the excitement in the air.

As his father pulled off the exit ramp to get to the arena, the boy stared out the window and admired the huge building with glowing eyes. He couldn’t believe it; they were almost at the show!

The father parked at the parking garage nearby and as they got out a group of fans passed them by. It was at this moment that things finally sunk into his head. He was actually going to watch his favorite wrestler go for the title tonight.

As they stood on line in front of the arena, time seemed to be at a standstill. The boy looked around at all the other fans with impatience. When they finally got in his dad pulled him aside and said to him, "I have a couple surprises for you."

He watches as his father digs into his packets and pulls out two crisp 20-dollar bills. He hands them to his son and tells him to pick out whatever he wants at souvenir stand. The boy runs to the stand with an excitement that he never felt before.

As he looks at the flurry of shirts, hats, and many other things that stand before him, he is overwhelmed and confused on what to buy. He stares and stares until finally his eyes stop. He looks at a championship belt made out of cheap plastic.

This will be perfect, he said to himself. He handed the vendor the folded bills, and when the vendor gave him the belt he felt a ting of electricity, as if fate played some part in all of this.

He runs back to his father and shows him the belt that he had just purchased. The father looks at him warmly and smiles and tells him that he loves him. The boy looks up and then asked his dad what his second surprise was.

His father tells him to close his eyes and keep them closed. He then leads his son down to the corridor of the arena. The boy can’t help but feel impatience and anticipation. When his father finally tells him to open his eyes, they light up like a Christmas tree.

There they were in the front row. All he could do is stare in amazement at the ring that stood before him. His father yells surprise and the boy hugs him with feelings of love and admiration.

As the lights started to dim he stared up at the ceiling. To him, it looked as if the roof opened up as he stared at the pitch black. His trance was broken by the sound of a loud voice.

He looked down to see the ring announcer welcoming everyone in the audience to the show. The boy knew that this was no big deal, but he couldn’t help feel as if the announcer was talking only to him.

The rest of the night seems to pass by much like a blur. He and his father would yell and scream at the wrestlers as they made their way to the ring. He stared with joy as he watched many of the good guys have their hands raised in victory.

It was a night the boy would hope that it never ended. He also couldn’t help to start feeling impatient. As the night would draw on he wanted to see his favorite wrestler win the belt tonight.

When the ring action was broken up by an intermission the boy felt worn out. He didn’t want to admit it but he was feeling tired. He would refuse to give in though, his guy was going to win the belt, and he just knew it.

They made their way back from the bathrooms just in time. The arena was pitch black just as they sat down. As he sat in his seat talking to his dad about the matches they just saw, he was suddenly interrupted.

It was the ring announcer who caused the conversation to break. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, as the announcer told the audience that it was time for the main event.

A loud chorus of cheers filled the arena as the announcement was made. It was soon followed with boos as the champion’s music blared all over. As the champion made his way to the ring he passed the boy, as he did the boy booed with all his heart.

He though the guy was a jerk. "Just look at the way he yells at everyone," he said to himself. He started to drift off again but was interrupted, this time though it was the music of his favorite wrestler.

He grabbed his sign and held it as high as he could. As he was cheering the wrestler would pass him buy. A sudden feeling of disheartening filled the boy's head; he didn’t even look at the sign he spent so much time to make.

These feelings would have to wait though because the bell rang a second later. He watched as both man battled it out in the ring. It was a back and forth match with neither man getting ahead at first.

Things would take a turn for the worst though as he noticed the champion pulls something out of his boot. He couldn’t make out was it was but he know it was bad news. The boy yelled with all his might for his guy to look out.

As hard as he tried, though, the wrestler couldn’t hear him. The boy watched helplessly as his favorite wrestler was laid out on the mat. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

The champion stood over his guy and was taunting him with sissy slaps and kicks. The boy was infuriated, he wanted to go in there and get revenge for his fallen hero. He knew though he was only a child, so all he could do is watch the humiliation.

Things looked bad for his wrestler as the champ went to go for the cover. The ref started to make the count, as he did the boy covered his eyes. He couldn’t watch as his hero was cheated out of the championship.

He heard it as clear as day, one, two and then out of nowhere cheers. He quickly opened his eyes and saw with excitement, his favorite wrestler kicked out. It was then and only then he could continue to watch.

The action resumed with both men getting near falls. He didn’t know how much more he could take. The champion went to his boot again and pulled out whatever it was he used before.

It felt as if he swallowed a rock as the boy watched all of this. He said to himself, "this isn’t fair; turn around, ref." To his dismay though the ref didn’t see it, he thought for sure his wrestler was doomed.

The champion made his towards the dazed challenger and wound up his fist for the final blow. The boy started to turn his head in horror when out of nowhere the challenger blocked the punch.He cheered, as his guy would punch the champ back. All of sudden, the champ was getting hit with everything the tired challenger had. He watched as the challenger nailed the champ with a DDT.

He screamed and yelled for his favorite wrestler to go for the pin. As the challenger went to go for the pin, he saw the ref start the count. It was almost as if time stood still as the boy watched.

As the ref brought his hand down he heard him yell one, two, and finally three. The crowd screamed with a thunderous yell that could be heard for miles. The boy just stood there and stared; he was in shock with what he just saw.

He suddenly realized that his favorite wrestler was the heavyweight champion of the world. As the new champion raised his title in the air the boy jumped on his chair and raised his belt with him.

It was on this fateful day that a wrestling fan was born.

(This was something I wrote a while back. It was one of my favorite things that I have ever written, and I thought I would share it again with you. If you didn’t like it I apologize. This is also dedicated to all the wrestling fans that stood by it through thick and thin. Whether your a fan of ROH, WWE, TNA, Orton, Cena Egde, Jericho or whoever.)